La Vista Hakodate Bay

Sunday, we finally went ashore to Hakodate, Japan. It felt so good to be firmly on terra firma. We did a bit of sightseeing and shopping. It was a very clean Japanese town. Hope all is well at home. Also, due to the typhoon, we will not be going to Tokyo. Instead we will spend the extra time in Kobe. Cub has put ...

... rough waters. So far so good, anyway.<br><br>Cub has gone to all the historical and geological seminars, and I have gone to the spa seminars about weight loss and nutrition. Today, I&#8217;m going to join the knitting group.<br><br>I hope all is well with everyone back in the States.<br><br>Later,<br><br>Elaine and Cub

... raining.<br> Somehow we made it back to the bus stop without getting completely drenched, but by that point we were all groggy, hungry, and tired of being illiterate. For dinner we went to a cafe that was pretty unremarkable except for, I kid you not, pokemon shaped ice cream cones.<br> We wandered back to the hotel and expected to fall asleep. But, of course, we caught a second wind stayed up to the wee hours of the morning. Tomorrow's train ride will be fun.

... Hakodate, seafood means 'catch heaps of weird **** from the ocean and steam it, wrap it in seaweed or put it in soup with a boiled egg'. C'mon. This place is known for its squid. There's a STATUE of a squid. Do you think we could get a little bag of calamari? The morning markets were pretty interesting though. It reminded us of the Queen Vic markets in Melbourne (you know, except with dried cuttlefish and sea urchin burgers...) Today we ...

... sea lions, pinguin and walrus shows beside many fish we've never seen before ! Finally we reached our final destination of north Japan: Hakodate, big city in the south of Hokkaido where we could go on top of Mount Hakodate to have a view of the city by night (very crowded place indeed). We wanted to see cherry blossom for a last time in Matsumae, unfortunately only 1/10th of the 10.000 trees were blossoming, the rest would come later.

... nous sommes alles voir un parc avec douves en etoile (jadis etant le lieu d'un chateau inspire des constructions de Vauban) ou commencait tout juste la floraison des cerisiers. De nouveau on a senti la frenesie des japonais... Ensuite nous attendait un bain de foule sino-japonais en haut du mont Hakodate (on l'on a pu monter en bus qui circulent seulement a partir de la nuit tombee). C'etait certes tres joli, mais pas facile d'atteindre les rembardes ...

... incline. So you nap for 20 minutes if you can. And then I arrived on the Hokkaido side which was to say, I found myself surrounded by tall snowy, rocky mountains on all sides. I had no idea this island was that rocky--given it's size, I'd have thought it'd be some fraction plains and flat. Due to mountains the train's path is along the highway that follows the Pacific ocean side of Hokkaido. Which is probably one of the most scenic trains trips I've had so far. The bullet ...

... lanterns running along the decks to attract the squid. Fish is all the rage on this island. Think I might be facing my fears again sometime very soon! There was a serious blizzard going on here for most of my stay so I missed the usually beautiful view across the bay sadly. Oh well... on to Sapporo....

... j'ai donc decider de payer un peu plus et d'aller dans un hotel d'une grande chaine japonaise. Toyoko-inn. heureusement pour moi, les prix sont moins eleve en hiver. donc au lieu de payer 80.00$ la nuit, je pays 50.00$ lit double, internet dans la chambre, salle de bain privee, dejeuner inclus, le gros luxe! Une fois partie pour faire le tour de la ville. je me suis fais barrer la route par la ...

... I woke up without a real plan over what I was going to do with the day (remember, I mentioned the exhaustion?), left the hotel in search of coffee, and stumbled onto the Hadokate seafood markets. They begin their trade quite early in the morning, but close by noon. It's really quite amazing to see all of the seafood on display - live squid in tanks, massive crabs roped up for sale, salmon being sliced up before you. The best part is that each market stall uses makeshift ...